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ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF COLONIAL 
WARS OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. /* ANNUAL 
DINNER AT THE DETROIT CLUB, MAY THE 
SEVENTH, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWO. Jft 
BY THE REV. RUFUS W. CLARK, D. D., CHAPLAIN. 



ADDRESS 

BEFORE THE 

SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS 

OF THE 

STATE OF MICHIGAN. 

BY THE 
REV. RUFUS W. CLARK, D. D., 

ChAPIvAIN. 



^ 



ANNUAL DINNER AT THE DETROIT CI.UB 

MAY SEVENTH, 
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWO. 



^ 



1903. 

Winn & Hammond, 
Detroit. 



^>'^ 




10 Ffe^ 



INTRODUCTION. 



IN the early days of our country, there were wars 
with the Spanish, French, and English. These 
wars were at stated periods, but fighting with 
the Indians was going on all the while. We fought 
with the Indians; but there were also Indians who 
fought for us. These were found especially among 
the Algonquins and their allies. 

Tarhe or Crane, who served with General Harri- 
son, had much to do with the defeat of Proctor on 
the Thames. He was the foe of Tecumseh, the 
Shawnee. He was against the Americans at Fallen 
Timbers in 1794, but later came to know that the 
Indian's welfare had better be trusted to the Ameri- 
can people than to any other. 

Another chief of commanding character was 
Leather Lips. He was devoted to the cause of his 
tribe, but when the time for conflict came, prudence 
tempered his policy and he was successful in staying 
open hostility; but his wide influence made him the 
object of jealousy, and by-and-by of intrigue. He 
was hated by Roundhead and the Wyandottes on the 
Detroit River, and was in the end slain on the Scioto 
near Columbus, where a granite monument has been 
erected to his memory. 

Earlier in American histoiy there was Cornstalk, 
who took the side of the Colonists at Point Pleasant 
in West Virginia. He was terrible in battle, and 
had a genius for strategy. The movement of his 
troops was like the wind ; but he was too trustful of 
the white men, and his sad and ungrateful murder by 



them in 1777 was the occasion of more bloodshed 
between the Ohio and the Lakes, and of more suffer- 
ing in this region among men, women and children 
of both races than has since been known. 

Adario was called by his own people Kondiarunk, 
but he was more frequently known as The Rat. Of 
all of the Huron chiefs, he was the first and best 
known as an example of leadership and sagacity, 
largeness of vision and noble purpose, and, towards 
the end of his life, of magnanimity of spirit. To 
him and his counsels were the first settlers upon the 
Great Lakes indebted, in more ways than one, for a 
successful occupation of that territory. His life, 
character, and achievements are worthy of the atten- 
tion of the Society of the Colonial Wars in the State 
of Michigan. Even the romance and tradition with 
which they have been invested, may not fail to be of 
pleasing interest in our time and place, and quicken 
the spirit of sober research which has characterized 
the discussions and the papers of this Society. 




ADARIO THE RAT. 



I. 



TEUCHSA GRONDIE. 



"Beside that broad but gentle tide, 
Where navies of the world may ride, 
There stood an Indian village, 
Algonquin huts and rustic tillage." 

TEUCHSA GRONDIE was the name of the 
Indian village which occupied the site upon 
which Detroit now stands. The river was 
called the Waweatunong, or the river that bends. At 
this point it turns in its course to the sea westward. 
This puzzles the voyager, who finds the pole star 
swinging over his head out of place, and thinks the 
Okies are playing the mischief with the needle of his 
compass. 

Of all the seasons of the year, June is here most 
beautiful — the moon of strawberries. Terrace upon 
terrace on the river's bank is festooned with the 



bloom of flowers, and the air is ladened with fra- 
grance. Weebanawbaigs and white ladies flit through 
the air at twilight, and an azure hue is on the mist, 
as the panguks and ghosts of dead men rise on it, to 
cross the bars, guarding the radiance of the setting 
sun, now dropping into the land of the hereafter. 

Here was once the peaceful and prosperous home 
of the Hurons, now scattered by their foes, the Iro- 
quois, known also as the Long House or Five 
Nations. Since the Man of the Iron Hand, Tonti, 
had driven the Iroquois back, this paradise of the 
Hurons on the strait had been occupied from time to 
time, but only as a summer camping ground. It was 
now deserted. Rumors were abroad of the return of 
the hated Iroquois for another purpose than that of 
a second onslaught — it was for their help. A depu- 
tation was to come to urge them and others of the 
Algonquin allies to thwart the purposes of the 
French, who were maturing their plans for the 
seizure and occupation of the River of the Strait. A 
year before this very time the French had planted 
here the fleur-de-lis. Two companies, composed of 
English and Dutch, whose cause the Iroquois had 
espoused, had been intercepted on the river, as one 
coming from above and the other from below, trav- 
elled toward the spot they had chosen. They, as 
well as the French, well knew that Detroit would 
prove the gateway to the trade of the West, and its 
possession as a military post would be important. 

Two Indians stood upon the bluff above the land- 
ing, scanning the horizon and watching the surface 
of the river, the younger, Neegi, cautiously asked, 
"If the white man is to build upon this spot, why 
may it not be the British rather than the French- 
men ?" 



"No, no," replied his companion, Mugwa. "We 
love not the French, but they are our only hope 
against the knife and hatchet of the Long House." 
He turned his face towards the Island of the Swan 
floating in the stream, anchored there by the Sleep- 
ing Bear, to hide his daughters from their suitors. 
They were very beautiful, and the youngest, Wah- 
begounnee, the most beautiful of all, had been prom- 
ised to the great chief, Adario, for his son, the day 
the Hurons should make Teuchsa Grondie their 
home again. Neegi was that son, and Wahbegoun- 
nee was now far away, living her child life in the 
solitudes of the Manitoulins. Messages were sent by 
her to the warriors of her tribe, and she had never 
as yet been seen by them. She was called their Jos- 
sakeed. 

Mugwa continued : "It must be, as the Sleep- 
ing Bear has said ! The Mahnahbezee frowns ! The 
Matchivato hovers near ! The Keneu, the war eagle, 
has risen and not returned! Never can there be 
peace again between the Huron and the Iroquois. 
Adario's word is true, that the Huron can alone hope 
to possess this spot again as an ally of the King of 
France." 

While the Indians were watching the enchanted 
island, which was gradually being enveloped in the 
darkness, they observed a group of canoes coming 
up the river. They contained the hated Iroquois, 
seeking a parley with the Hurons to awaken their 
hostility to the French. When they reached the 
landing, the shore was closely scrutinized. The 
tracks of the roebuck and wolf were there. But 
there were no signs of any human being having 
passed that way. Deserted fields were overgrown. 
The frames of the huts were demolished. There 



was not even a trail to the river bank. They had 
captives of a neutral nation of Indians with them, 
who had refused to do their bidding and join them 
against the white intruders. When they reached the 
shore, the captives were pinioned and left under- 
neath the embankment in the care of a guard. They 
were painted black, and doomed for the torture and 
the savage feast of the man-eater, with which they 
were too well familiar. 

The course Mugwa and Neegi had decided 
upon was soon evident. They had come as advance 
scouts to learn the number and intentions of the 
Iroquois. They could not yield to their request : that 
would be counter to the command of their chief, and 
they knew that to deny it would be to share the fate 
of the neutrals just made captive. 

As soon therefore, as the Iroquois weary with the 
day's journey were overcome with sleep, the two 
Huron scouts found their way down the bluff, where 
the ripple of the water was the only sound. When 
the watch was off his guard, Neegi crept cautiously 
to the nearest captive, cut the cords from his hands, 
left him a knife and such weapons as he could carry, 
and made him the sign, that the firing of the gun 
was to be the signal of the attack. This soon came 
with the shooting of the sentinel. It was followed 
by the yells of the released captives, leaping forward 
with their knives and clubs, as they fell on those who 
were lying in a circle around the fire. 

After the slaughter one of the Iroquois was found 
wounded. Mugwa thought something was odd 
and yet familiar in his figure and movements. The 
released neutrals bound him and threw him into one 
of the canoes in which they themselves had been 
brought as prisoners. In these same canoes, all, 



Mugwa, Neegi, the neutrals and the Iroquois, 
were soon upon their way up the river of the strait, 
to the little post of St. Joseph on Lake Huron. Mug- 
wa tried to talk with the sullen Iroquois, but was 
given no reply. Who was this Iroquois? 



II, 

THE WRECK OF THE GRIFFON. 

"Never had vessel along this shore, 
Cleft these quiet waves before. 
No better craft was ever seen 
Than brave LaSalle's stout brigantine. 
And the ship that earned so wide a fame, 
Bore on the scroll, the Griffon's name." 

IT was some years before the events of the last 
chapter that the ship whose keel first parted 
these waters came up from the Lake of the 
Eries. It crossed Lake Huron and touched the Island 
of the Great Turtle. It was of the most unheard of 
swiftness. It could g"o even against the wind. Some 
said it was bound for China, some for the Ind ; some 
said it was for the killing of the red man ; some said 
it was after peltries and for trade. 

Not many months after this wonderful vessel had 
been first seen, and while it was still talked about, an 
Indian came ashore on a raft on the Georgian Bay. 
He told the Hurons of a little settlement there : that 
he was from the white-winged canoe which had been 
caught on the rocks near by. Near the end of Cape 
Hurd, surrounded by a group of islands, there is a 
natural harbor. For this harbor the vessel was evi- 
dently bound, but had failed to reach it. 

Mugwa, for that was the Indian upon the raft, 
had been the guide of the explorers and traders upon 
the vessel. He told his people about its building, 
and its voyage across the Lake of the Eries. and up 
the river that turns at Detroit and over Lake Huron ; 
the storms it encountered, the dissensions among its 
officers and crew, and the reluctance of the owner to 

lO 



part with his ship at Green Bay and turn it over to 
the captain that it might be taken to Niagara. When 
he told of the stranded ship, he said that the captain, 
with part of the crew that he had not murdered, and 
with most of its treasures, had escaped. They were 
now on the Ottawa heading for Montreal. The 
captain was a thief, and had planned to take all that 
belonged to the owner of the ship; to run his vessel 
ashore and by canoes carry the cargo to some trad- 
ing post. It was a bold undertaking, but nothing 
was too bold for the swearing saltwater pilot. 
Mugwa secured the assistance of the Indians. He 
wanted to pursue the captain and his crew. They 
were to have the booty; what he wanted was the 
pilot's scalp. He hated him for the sake of the 
owner of the vessel ; he hated him for his cruelty to 
his men ; he hated him for his meanness to himself. 
Now, as he was on the waterways of the upper route 
with which he was familiar, and the captain was not, 
he could take him by surprise and measure to him 
due punishment. But when he reached the Nippis- 
sing no trace of the pilot could be found and the 
pursuit was reluctantly abandoned. 

In a great storm the vessel on the rocks had gone 
to pieces, broken spars and bits of sail had been 
found on the shores of the bay. The question 
mooted abroad was, "What became of the pilot 
Lucas?" A Sioux said he had seen Lucas in the 
Illinois country. A trader reported him as having 
reached the Hudson Bay. Another confidently 
affirmed that he had taken passage as a sailor, having 
disposed of his goods at Three Rivers. So many 
were the opinions that were current that it came to 
be believed that Mugwa had never seen him on 
shore at all. 



II 



As has already been observed, several years had 
passed since the disappearance of Lucas when the 
two scouts, Mugwa, Adario's friend, and Neegi, 
Adario's son, made the attack at Teuchsa Grondie 
and brought the neutrals, and the wounded 
Iroquois that had been spared, to Fort St. Joseph. 
This fort was on Lake Huron at the outlet of what 
is now the St. Clair River; it was of small im- 
portance and without any considerable garrison. To 
have made it a strong center would have been to 
weaken the fortifications at Mackinac, which pos- 
sessed unusual advantages for defense. The time 
had now come to determine whether it could be 
maintained. If not, it should be burned, lest it fall 
into the hands of some of the rapidly multiplying 
bands from the Iroquois country. 

Henry Tonti, who built the Grififon at Niagara, 
and who sailed on the vessel with its captain, Lucas, 
and its owner, LaSalle, was at Fort St. Joseph at the 
time when Mugwa came up the Detroit River with 
the capture he had made at Teuchsa Grondie. 
Mugwa related to Tonti his experiences since they 
had parted at the sailing of the white winged canoe, 
the Griffon, from Green Bay and Mackinac. Mugwa 
told of the September gale which carried the vessel 
on the Northeast course; of the wreck, and his at- 
tempted pursuit of Lucas, and of the pilot's possible 
adoption into the tribe of the Five Nations. 

When the story was done, Tonti inquired : "Who 
is this Indian the neutrals have bound here? From 
a passing glance I should say this painted savage 
was the pilot Lucas, disguised as an Iroquois." 
Upon their seeking the captive they found he was 
gone. He had slipped the cords which bound him, 
eluded the watch and fled. 



III. 

ADARIO KEEPS HIS PROMISE. 

"His zeal for the public good was sincere, and this motive 
alone led him to break the peace made by the Marquis Denon- 
ville with the Iroquois." — Charlevoix. 

IT was not long after the escape of this suspected 
Indian from Fort St. Joseph that he appeared in 
the vicinity of the camp of Adario on LakeFron- 
tenac. His part as an Iroquois chief had been well 
played. Mugwa, Adario's friend, had not recognized 
him. Why should Adario, changed as he was in dress 
and the manner of his life? He now tries his hand 
to get Adario to join with himself and his adopted 
tribe of the Iroquois against the French. This he 
was confident he could do now, notwithstanding a 
pledge Adario had given to the French that he would 
not oppose them. The disguised Lucas had learned 
that Onontio, the French Governor of Montreal, had 
made a treaty with the Iroquois without including 
in its terms the safety of the Algonquins. This 
would, of course, awaken the displeasure of Adario. 
He had been ignored by his allies the French, and 
for this reason was certainly free to be secm-ed to 
serve the pilot's purpose. Never had there been such 
a chance for catching this general of the Algonquin 
Confederacy : never such a certain prospect for 
blocking the schemes of the King of France in his 
attempts to secure these lands and bring these 
western waterways under his control. And more 
than this, he was confident that by enlisting Adario 
on the side of the Five Nations, he would accomplish 
that which Big Mouth and Black Kettle and Broken 

13 



Arrow, the other chiefs of his own adopted tribe, 
had attempted in vain, and so would reach the sum- 
mit of his ambition. He felt sure that his arguments 
were perfect and conclusive, and was confident his 
case would be won. 

He found Adario and his trusted company of 
braves about him, not far from the St. Lawrence. 
He disclosed to him the information he possessed as 
to the weakness of the forces of the French at their 
various outposts, and also the desire of the Iroquois, 
that he would lend them his assistance once for all in 
ridding the country of its intruders. Adario 
promptly assured him that he wanted none of his 
advice, nor did he care for his company. How this 
disguised Indian was disposed of by those who lis- 
tened to Adario's reply has never been told. They 
may, perhaps, have had him for their supper. 

Adario had his own way of dealing with Onontio. 
He crossed the St. Lawrence, not to attack the 
French, but to lie in wait for the Iroquois delegation, 
now on their way to Montreal to confirm the treaty 
of peace, excluding the Hurons as proposed by 
Onontio. After waiting three or four days, the ex- 
pected party was waylaid, and those who were not 
killed were made prisoners. The unprotected villages 
of the Long House were laid waste ; none of the cus- 
tomary cruelties were omitted. 

Upon the protestations that were made by the 
Iroquois, when they were attacked by the Hurons 
while at peace with them, Adario regretfully gave as 
his reason the fact that it had been instigated by the 
French. In proof of this he released his captives, 
all excepting one, and furnished them with food and 
ammunition, and wished them a safe return to their 
homes. The prisoner he retained was brought with 

14 



him on his return to Mackinac, where the Command- 
ant who had not heard of the proposed peace between 
Onontio and the Iroquois, seized the prisoner, and 
after torture put him to death. This was witnessed 
by another Iroquois prisoner already at the post, 
who was by Adario suffered to escape, in order that 
he might carry the information and the impression 
conveyed by it back to the Iroquois. This would be 
a confirmation of the statement already made by 
Adario to the Iroquois as to the true disposition of 
the French towards them. 

Not long after this, bands of Iroquois were organ- 
ized as scalping parties and marauders, and they fell 
upon the settlements of the St. Lawrence River, car- 
rying death and devastation before them. Never 
before had there been such a slaughter upon the 
banks of that river. Onontio learned his lesson. He 
learned that no treaty could be safely made by the 
French with the Iroquois that did not include the 
Hurons, and other Algonquins. He learned also 
that Adario had kept his promise, and that he had 
kept it in his own way. 



15 



IV. 
SACHEMS IN COUNCIL. 

"Not only the Sulpitians, but the Jesuits stood always in 
the van of religious and political propagandism, and all the 
forest tribes felt their influence." — Parkman. 

ANOTHER expedition was now set on foot 
for the possession of the strait, the gateway 
to the waters of the West. It was led by 
Cadillac, at one time commander of the post at Mack- 
inac. He had returned from Versailles with the re- 
quired commission and authority for making a per- 
manent settlement. The old question was raised 
again: "Will it be permitted without dispute?" It 
will be disputed by the Iroquois who command the 
approach by the Niagara route. 

It was early in June, 1701, that Seur de Cadillac 
left La Chine, near Montreal, for Teuchsa Grondie. 
He was about to ascend the Ottawa to Lake Nipis- 
sing and Georgian Bay, in order to reach Lake 
Huron; thence to go Southward and then to pass 
down the Detroit River. Prudence induced him not 
to take the course by way of Niagara, where the 
Iroquois were in force. 

It is difficult to realize the importance at that time 
of the waterway of the Ottawa and Nipissing from 
the sea to the Sault. It was for nearly one hundred 
years before the time of our narrative, almost exclu- 
sively the only route used by the Indians of the lake 
country going to the sea or by white men going into 
the interior. There were many portages from river 
to lake, and from lake to river. The variety of 
scenery and the charm of widening streams and inlets 

16 



were in marked contrast to the monotony of the route 
by the two great lakes below. 

Before Cadillac started, messages had been sent 
by the Iroquois as to the expedition that was being 
fitted out, to the tribes of the Algonquin Confederacy. 
The warnings which were sent were those of calami- 
ties sure to come to them from those voyagers, who 
were not simply to pass through their country for the 
Mitchisipi or Cathay, but for the purpose of a perma- 
nent settlement. If any white man was to occupy 
the Strait, they urged it should be the British, to 
whom the land had already been conveyed by the 
Iroquois. Surely the Algonquin and Iroquois were, 
by combining, strong enough to resist even this im- 
posing fleet, or any force the King of France might 
send out against them. 

A council of the tribes sought by the Iroquois was 
held on the Georgian Bay. To this meeting of the 
Algonquins the Foxes had come pledged to the con- 
federacy of the "Long House." To these also the 
Pottawatomies were more than half won over. Their 
medicine men declared that with the crucifix and 
holy rite of baptism of the black gowns Cadillac 
would bring with him, their own power would soon 
be gone. Their appeal was to an ancestral faith. 
Already their divinities were displeased. The wrath 
of the great Michabou would be roused, and then 
what would become of them? The spirits of war- 
riors gone to the happy hunting grounds were in- 
voked, and at the repetition of their names signs of 
approval were apparent. 

Another plea for the cause of the Iroquois and 
English came from the Ottawa Chief Le Baron, 
whose spies had followed Courtmanche, the Montreal 
emissary, exposing his intrigues among their tribes. 

17 



Space was then given for an answer, but there was 
no reply. The pause that followed showed that the 
spell of witchcraft had fallen on them, which must 
be broken by a power equally as strong. The Nope- 
ming-tah-she-nah of the bush sat as a rabbit on his 
haunches and his face on the ground, never fearful 
save in the presence of the sorcerer. No movement 
was visible excepting that of the curling smoke of 
the killikinick from their calumets. Then came one, 
two, and three hours of silence. This lasted until 
the sun went down. 

As the twilight gathered and the prolonged silence 
hung over that grim and solemn circle like a pall, 
there came to this Manitoulin council the maiden 
prophet Wahbegounnee, known as the spirit child of 
the old Chief Adario, and had been called "the Lily," 
by the Sleeping Bear, her father, in acknowledgment 
of her grace and reputed origin — for she was said 
to have sprung, as a flower, from the water. As the 
human child is sometimes transformed to bird and 
beast and flower, so here there were retransforma- 
tions from among things in the air and water, and 
beings like men appeared. Human habitation, she 
had none. She had been known to shun the approach 
of the young men of the forest, and when in vigil 
and solitude her sanctuary was invaded, she was 
borne away by unseen hands. Water spirits came at 
her bidding, and the loon diving far out into the bay 
would come up by her side in the rushes. The refrain 
of her song in the forest was that of the Monedo, 
the nymph upon the water. 

"Ba bah wah she you nee gay 
Ba bah moo ah keng gay." 



i8 



When she came to assembHes such as this, she had 
a clairvoyant power which gave her the interpreta- 
tion of omens and made her a diviner of riddles. In 
the therapeutic art she was an adept. The mysteries 
in the keeping of the constellations she easily re- 
vealed. No such Jossakeed was there as the Lily of 
the Caniatare. 

To this waiting council she had come serenely 
beautiful after her five days' fast. It was as if a this- 
tledown had been wafted over the hills in an evening 
breeze and had alighted among them. It was no 
wonder that the medicine man sat like a stone, and 
that the Wabano, the dark-visaged magician, pulled 
his blanket about his head, that he might neither see 
nor listen. 

When at length she was in sympathetic accord 
with the circle of these grim and solemn auditors, 
and when, by the swaying of their bodies they were 
en rapport with her, she told of the tidings brought 
by the carrier dove sent by Neegi, of the capture that 
had been made at the Strait. Because of that cap- 
ture, she said, the outpost for their own protection 
would be transferred from the ice and snow of Mich- 
ilimackinac, to the land of bloom and song and sun- 
shine, and that with the help of the pale face at 
Teuchsa Grondie, the dreaded Iroquois could easily 
be kept back beyond the Lake of the Eries. 

There was, however, a power which the Lily 
wielded greater than that of magic. Those who 
were familiar with her childhood at the vStrait could 
have told you she had received her training at the 
feet of the Meda of the Wabenong, the land of the 
East. A new spirit had come on her since the Father 
had called her child and had touched her brow with 
water, and given her the water. She wished 

19 



for all her race the benedictions that holy 
men could bring; and the teaching of the 
mastery of life; of the One who loved, more than 
any other, the suffering and the solitary. There was 
within her a strong mingling of the Christian faith 
and ancestral mythologies. This was why her visions 
had meanings none could fathom, and why her coun- 
sels were such no wizard could understand. 



20 



V. 

ADARIO, THE MASTER MIND. 

"Let us welcome then the strangers, 
Hail them as our friends and brothers, 
And the heart's right hand of friendship 
Give them when they come to see us." 

IT was now the time for Adario to speak. His 
wisdom, his age, and his tribal dignity entitled 
him to the last word. He felt that by his Jos- 
sakeed, his cause was won. Speaking in measured 
tones, he related the horrors of the massacre of the 
Matchedash, and told of the time when Wyandottes 
by the thousands were destroyed and the blood of 
the slain stained the bank of these very shores as far 
as the eye could reach. 

Then he asked the questions: "What Ojibway 
serves the Iroquois ? Will he be servant to the wolf 
that has ravaged his home ? Will he go on the war- 
path with the foe which has driven him from the 
land of the oak and the maple, from the trail of the 
deer and the plain of the buffalo ? The 'Long House' 
cannot be trusted ; nor can the Jeebi, or the Wendi- 
goes help you. Well do you know that the Manitou 
which guarded the gates of the lakes at Teuchsa 
Grondie fell before the touch of consecrated hands. 
The idol was broken into fragments and its pieces, 
which you say were turned into myriads of serpents, 
could not ward from the Strait — with the wind 
moving as a hurricane — the winged Griffon which 
carried the great canoe across the waters and vom- 
ited smoke, and fire, and thunder. The incantation 
of the medicine lodge will not serve against the 
Mother of the Child, before whom the white man 
prays." 



"This is why Cadillac is the Algonquin's friend, 
Nushka," he exclaimed as he pointed to the waters of 
the bay ; "do you not see a portent of coming bright- 
ness? Dark clouds have lifted and are hastening 
away. Do you not see that the moon in its splendor 
has made a cross of silver, like that carried by Cadil- 
lac's long-robed priest? Do you not hear the tink- 
ling of the bell for prayer, the pater and the ave of a 
vesper song?" * * * As his voice gradually 
subsided they did, indeed, hear the sonorous lullaby 
of the mudwayaushka, the organ-tones of the waves, 
the clinking of the shingle spar on the shores and 
the echoes that seemed like voices on the reef, while 
the full orb of the moon shone out a clear witness to 
the prophetic counsel. 

Onanguice of the Pottawatomies then arose. He 
wore upon his head the skin of a young bull. The 
horns hung down over his ears. His speech was de- 
liberate and final. He said : 

"Our counsel is the counsel given by the great 
Adario; that henceforward the confederacy of the 
Three Fires shall continue unbroken, and that the 
children of the French King shall be our allies. We 
shall follow the sign of peace and all that is good, 
the cross of silver carried by the friar, and Cadillac, 
the Algonquin's friend. From the Kikalamazoo to 
Michilimackinac we will, with the Hurons, seek the 
smiling waters of the heart-shaped Otisi-Keka and 
the vine-clad slope of the Waweatunong. Teuchsa 
Grondie will be our home." 

Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! was the response that went 
around the circle of those seated on the ground, and 
the agreement was ratified by the exchange of belts 
of white wampum. 



Adario himself, however, did not go with Cadil- 
lac to Teuchsa Grondie, but many of his followers 
subsequently joined their fortunes with those of 
Cadillac, and helped again to people the shores of 
this river, whence they had been driven by the Iro- 
quois. Within two years there were more than six 
thousand souls gathered at this point, the larger 
part of whom were Indians. They found in Cadil- 
lac a protector against their foes, the Iroquois, and 
they in turn lent their aid to protect the settlement. 

Wahbegounnee, the daughter of the Sleeping 
Bear, was claimed as the bride of Adario's son, and 
they made their home on the Waweatunong. 



23 



VL 

A REQUIEM. 

"Heaven hath a hand in these events, 
To whose high will, be bound our calm content." 

IN the balance of possibilities great events have 
often turned in history upon seemingly unim- 
portant incidents. A city may be saved by the 
cackling of a flock of geese ; a revolution may be pre- 
cipitated by the delay of a belle on her way to a ball 
by a little mud splashing upon her stocking; a few 
drops of water on a field has more than once turned 
the results of a battle. We may easily fancy that a 
wave of Adario's hand, coupled with unseen forma- 
tive influences still further back, may have had much 
to do in the determination of issues here on the 
waterways of the Great Lakes. European politics at 
this time entered as a factor in starting the expedi- 
tion of 1 70 1. A spirit of colonization was under 
way in two great empires. Both France and Eng- 
land had begun to compete with each other in a de- 
sire to rival the greater and dominant empire of the 
world, namely, that of Spain. New avenues of trade 
were sought, fields for traffic in their wares and for 
the purchase of fur. 

By far greater than either of these, and of 
stronger influence, were the outstretching arms of 
the church. Father Caron, the grey robe, nearly a 
century before, and Braebeuf, the Jesuit, a score of 
years later, made possible the peaceful approach of 
the trader, and also of the settler who came after. 
The influence which prepared the way for each, that 
is the trader and the settler, each in his turn did his 
best, not to help, but to destroy. It was the Mis- 
sionary that was the pioneer. The Missionary was 

24 



the benefactor of Adario, and of his father, years 
before. For in his father's time, before the Iroquois 
raid, there was as large a population between the 
Huron village on the Detroit River and the 
Georgian Bay, as there is to-day outside of its great 
cities. Indian towns of thrift were here, while 
order and industry prevailed. The church bells 
were hung in the tree, calling the children of the 
forest to prayer. The candles were lighted upon 
rude altars of stone, and the Aves floated upon the 
breezes among the pines. For twenty years the 
beneficent sway of the church was uninterrupted 
until the Iroquois swept down and the slaughter by 
thousands of these tribes began, and their scattered 
remnants found a refuge in the islands and inlets of 
the lakes. The profane historian tells us of the 
warrior going to mass, and his only apparel being a 
necklace composed of the teeth and fingernails of 
his enemies, slain in war. It may have been imper- 
fect religion, but it was potent for good. It was 
the best religion of the time and place. 

The red Indians about Cadillac were civilized, 
compared with the Indians before Caron and Brae- 
beuf, who were not far removed from the beasts of 
the forest from which they traced their ancestry, 
and to whom they paid homage. Adario was a fair 
type of the Christian Indian of his day. His con- 
version had been brought about by Father Carheil 
of the Island of the Great Turtle. Adario said of 
the Holy Father that he was, next to Frontenac, the 
greatest man in America. 

As our land has been indebted to Cadillac, so 
Cadillac was indebted to this Huron chief, and he 
in turn to the priest who prepared the way for the 
first steps of our civilization ; and sad indeed it was 



25 



that at the hands of Cadillac the holy father received 
scant justice, and what was worse, the most per- 
sistent abuse. 

The circumstances connected with the closing 
hours of Adario's eventful career were made mem- 
orable by writers of the time. As Cadillac went 
to Detroit, the venerable Adario continued his jour- 
ney to Montreal to attend the great conference 
already arranged by Sieur de Courtmanche to con- 
clude terms of peace between the government at 
Montreal and the Western tribes. Under the blind- 
ing sun of an August day, the red men of his con- 
federacy were seated in a circle, smoking the pipe 
of peace and arranging the terms of a long-con- 
sidered compact. It was a continuation of the 
council of the year before. Much depended upon 
what was to be done by Adario in his dealings, not 
only with the French authorities but the discordant 
elements and clamorous tongues of those who op- 
posed his policy. The strain was severe for the aged 
man, but the battle was won. His tottering form 
was supported by young braves who stood on either 
side, until the wampum was exchanged and the 
treaty ratified. His last address, two hours long, 
was made by him seated in his chair, and then, as 
if to seal his life's work with the best that he could 
give, he bowed his head as the sun went down, and 
ere it rose again his spirit was carried to the happy 
hunting grounds. 

The ceremonies attending his burial were most 
impressive. He lay in state on a scarlet blanket with 
his kettle, gun and sword. The procession of priests 
and public officials of Montreal, led by Saint Ours 
and the Governor, filled the public square. "Adario, 
the Rat, is dead!" was the feeling exclamation of 

26 



the great concourse of thirteen hundred savages of 
the council, as they mingled with the old soldiers of 
King Louis and the courier de bois from the Western 
solitudes. "Adario is dead— Adario, the Rat, is 
dead !" The Iroquois, who had been his deadly foes 
were loudest in their praise. The requiem mass was 
said in the cathedral with all the splendor the cathe- 
dral could afford. 

Had Adario been permitted to choose and record 
his last words, we believe that none would have ex- 
pressed more fully the feelings of his heart than 
those written of his ancestral village and of his 
childhood's haunts by one of our poets : 

"My song is ended, Happy Home; 
We love thee Teuchsa Grondie still, 
We love thee wheresoe'er we roam." 



27 



APPENDIX. 



TDARON LaHONTAN, who visited the region of 
rSi the Great Lakes in 1688, wrote of extended 
*~^ conversations with Adario. One or two selec- 
tions may be given from these conversations, as ex- 
pressing the views entertained by him upon various 
subjects. They show that "the Rat" was somewhat 
of a philosopher. 

WAR. 

"The only thing that vexes and disturbs my mind is seeing 
men wage war with men. Our dogs agree with the Iroquois 
dogs Those of the Iroquois bear no enmity to those which 
come from France. No animals wage war as man can. it 
the beasts reasoned, it would be an easy matter to exterminate 
the human race. If men were without faculty of hinking and 
arguing and speaking, they would not embark in unnatural 
wars as they now do. 

MONEY. 

"What you call silver is of the devil of devils the tyrant 
of the French, the source of all evils, the bane of souls, and 
Jhe slaughter-house for living men. To live m the money- 
country, and at the same time to save one s soul, is as great 
an inconsistency as for a man to go to the bottom of a lake 
and expect to preserve his life. Consider this, and tell me 
?hat we^are not in the right of it, in reference to silver and 
such as look upon that accursed metal. 

THE ADVANTAGES Ot NO LAWS OR KINGS. 

"What sort of men must the Europeans be, to have no 
other prornpter for avoiding evil than the fear of pumshnient? 
? call\hat creature a man that has a natural inclination to do 
good We have no judges. We do not sue one another. We 
fontent ourselves in denying dependence "PO" . any, ^ve 
SrCreat Spirit, and as being born and free and joint breth- 
ren when you are all the slaves of one man. In earnest, rny 
dear brother, I am sorry for thee, from the bottom of my soul. 
Take my advice and turn Huron." 

28 



UPON RELIGION, 

"Are you mad? Dost thou believe us to be void of re- 
ligion after thou hast dwelt with us so long? Dost thee not 
know m the first place, that we acknowledge a Creator of the 
Universe under the title of The Great Spirit, or Master of 
Ufe, whom we believe to be in everything and to be confined 
to no limits; that we own the immortality of the soul; that 
the Great Spirit has furnished us with a rational faculty 
capable of distinguishing good from evil, to the end that we 
might observe rightly the true meaning of justice and wisdom- 
that the tranquility and serenity of the soul pleases the Great 
Master of Life; that life is a dream and death a season of 
awakening, m which the soul sees and knows the nature 
and quality of things, whether visible or invisible? * * * 
If your religion differs from ours, it does not follow that we 
have none at all." 

UPON THE QUARRELS OF CHRISTIANS OVER THE KEYS. 

j^^™ ^^ ^ ^°^^ ^° '^"^^ ^°'^ t° ^o^'" a distinct idea of 
the difference between you and the English, as to the points 

?■ . f , ^°^ ^"^ '"°^^ ^ endeavor to have it set in a clear 
light, the less light I find. To my mind the best way for you 
all, is to agree upon this conclusion, that the Great Spirit 
has bestowed upon all men a light sufficient to show them 
what they ought to do, without running the risk of being im- 
posed upon. * * * And I cannot dissuade myself from 
believing that since the Great Spirit is so just and good, it is 
impossible that his justice should render the salvation of 
mankind so difficult that all of them should be damned that 
are not retained to your religion, and that only the possessors 
of that, should be admitted into Paradise. All our knowledge 
amounts to this; that we human beings are not the authors 
of our own creation; that the Great Spirit has vouchsafed 
to us an honest mould, while wickedness nestles in germ and 
that he sends you into our country, in order to have an 
opportunity of correcting your faults and following our 
example. 



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